Part 2 of our TRX700XX sters with the lead up to Smitty's first event with the big Honda, the notorious Thumb Pump 300 enduro at Pinnaroo in SA. Smith has never managed to finish the TP300 so the aim was to build something stright up that could handle not only the terrain but the punishment that Smitty would dishout looking for an outright position (Jumping ahead Smith finished 2nd in the Open Class and 3rd Outright..... not bad for the first time He's managed to finish).

First up the clutch is a known weak point for the Offroad racers in the US, Wayne Matlock Racing supplied a HD clutch kit with replacement Steel and Fibre plates along with HD springs, as part of the clutch work we also installed a CR125 aftermarket clutch perch and lever to replace the bulky stock perch (also the park brake lever,cable and mechanism were all ditched) and lighten the action a little. The clutch kit was the extent of the internal work for the first stage so we then move onto the engine bolt ons, a DMC full exhaust system was supplied by Hardiman ATV, a  long time sponsor of Paul's, along with a Pro Design Pro Flow kit with dual stage air filter both to aid gas flow through the engine. Accompianing the pipe and filter kit Vortex CDI supplied an X10 ECM which they have just released for the 700XX, the X10 module gives fuel adjustment direct from the ECM instead of as an interceptor style fuel mapper and also gives a choice of 10 ignition maps. OK so as far as stright performance mods go we haven't gone a long way just yet but enough to see some reasonable gains (see dyno chart below) over the stock configuration. The biggest change being the lift in the torque curve making the engine much more responsive off the bottom.

So with the performance stuff out of the way we move on to some handling, a Roll Design +2inch long travel front end was aquired, not everyone makes part for the 700xx the same way that they do for the 450 models so options are limited, in fact at the time, aside from a couple of small manufacturers, Roll were the only mainstream A arms manufacurer to offer a +2 kit for the 700XX. The Roll arms have Heim joints with a pin set up instead of traditional ball joints, making the camber adjustment much easier than normal but have no castor adjustment. Onto the Roll front end went a set of Fox Shox Float Evol's (which we have been running on Smittys race quads for the last 4 years) and a set of Fox Podium X shocks went onto the stock rear A Arms to soak up the bumps. A Sonic sway bar was also added to the rear to help reduce body roll a sharpen the heavy IRS's sterring up (thanks to Brett from Quad Wreckers Australia for lending us the one of his own 700XX). To get the width in the rear to match the front, a set of wheel spacers have also been fitted to push the stock offset wheels out. To help out the steering an Elka System 3 steering damper was mounted (with some modifications to a TRX450R mounting kit and also the requirement to move the voltage regulator rectifier which normally resides just in front of the steering stem) up and a set of Fasst Flexx 14 Degree High bars were also put into service at the other end of the stock steering stem with Pro Taper ATV grips to hang on to.

One of the main parts of the decision to retain the stock A Arms and run spacer was that until a viable aftermarket altenative was found we could run stock offset rear wheels which would mena if we had to use a standard wheel as a spare there would be no geometry changes required, conveniently OMF have released an 11 inch bead lock in the standard offset specifically for the 700XX, obviously becaue of odd the 11 rear wheel size it makes wheel combinations hard to find, with the most common option to go to a 10 inch rear wheel with a wider offset, so the OMF option made things easy on the wheel front (not so easy on the tyres though) and just as we were taking delivery of the TRX Hustler ATV in Adelaide had a shipment of wheels arrive with some in it which made the decision even easier again.

Smitty knew that the big 700 would need a big fuel range so an IMS 18 litre tank was procured, and with the IMS tank saw the opportunity to also run with an IMS dry break system which he had from a previous race quad that never made it into service. As part of fitting the tank we also decided to give the front guards a little trim, completly removing the massive sheet of ABS plastic that was wrapped around the front of the front of the quad and cutting down the Darth Vader looking grill to a reasonable size. Continuing the guard cutting process, the side covers were also trimmed off where they meet the standard foot wells, mostly to accomodate the fact that the standard footwells were tossed in favor of a set of Sheppard Customs Pro Peg nerf bars with integrated heel guards. The Sheppard Customs nerfs were also accompianied by a bumper designed by Shane Hardiman, which was also handy to bolt the Vision X head lights to for the Highbeam 100 night race that I raced this 700XX in myself.

After the first oil change a decision was made to also trim the shroud plastic around the oil tank drain plug (highly reccomended)

So thats it for the first stage of the TRX700XX project, as we stated earlier Smitty has already taken the big TRX to a podium in its first outing which is a promising sign for us in the lead up to the prestigious Finke Desert Race (in which Smitty has one the Quad class twice in the last three years)  for which we will have continued our development into the next stage.....

Thanks to the Contributors to the Project so far: Honda Australia, Barry Francis Motorcycles Honda, Hardiman ATV, Quad Squad, Vortex CDI, Cernics, Austraco, Hustler ATV and Quad Wreckers Australia.

Just look at the change in the torque curve....

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